This invention relates to bed liner and, more particularly to a fastening assembly for fastening a bed liner to a pickup truck bed without drilling holes in the truck bed. The bed liner includes foldable tie-down rings attached thereto.
There are several patents directed to bed liners, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,267,820 issued to Thomas Sturtevant on Dec. 7, 1993, which discloses a fastening assembly with a support member, face plate and trough-shaped wall for supporting a clamp member that can move linearly. The clamp member can twirl within the trough-shaped wall structure in order to turn the clamp arm upward to the position required for clamping on the downward lip of the bed rail. When a screw is fastened into the trough-shaped wall in a threaded hole of the clamp member, the screw twirls and causes the clamp arm to twirl. This causes the clamp member to move linearly within the trough to the position required for clamping on the downward lip of the bed rail. The fastening assembly is a completely assembled apparatus which can be installed into a circular open hole on the side walls of a pickup truck bed liner after placing the liner on the truck bed.
A disadvantage of the fastener assembly of U.S. Pat. No. 5,267,820 when compared to the present invention is that the fastening assembly of U.S. Pat. No. 5,267,820 has been designed only to hold bed liner to the truck bed without a tie-down ring attached. After installing the bed liner with the fastener assembly pursuant to U.S. Pat. No. 5,267,820, the bed liner shall cover the truck bed including the original tie-down rings since pickup trucks normally have tie-down rings attached to the truck beds. If tie-down rings are required, it is necessary to drill holes in the liner of the device described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,267,820. These holes must be big enough to reach the original tie-down rings by hand. Such big holes have the disadvantage of allowing water, rock and/or sand to enter.
Another retainer apparatus pursuant to U.S. Pat. No. 6,203,090 B1 and Thai Patent No. 10615 discloses a bed liner for a pickup truck bed with an inwardly or outwardly extended bed rail. U.S. Pat. No. 6,203,090 B1 and Thai Patent No. 10615 are incorporated herein by reference. The pickup truck bed of these patents has a plurality of bed holes and the bed liner has a plurality of liner holes. The retainer apparatus includes a front tie-down ring retaining plate for positioning between the pickup truck bed and the bed liner. The front tie-down ring retaining plate has a first end and an opposing second end. The first end has at least one hole therethrough for alignment with one of the bed holes. The first end is secured to one of the bed holes. The second end has at least one hole therethrough for alignment with one of the liner holes. The second end is secured to one of the liner holes. The apparatus also includes a rear tie-down ring retaining plate for positioning between the pickup truck bed and the bed liner. The rear tie-down ring retaining plate has a first end and an opposing second end. The first end has at least one hole therethrough for alignment with one of the bed holes. The first end is secured to one of the bed holes. The second end has at least one hole therethrough for alignment with one of the liner holes. The second end is secured to one of the liner holes. The tie-down rings are attached to the bed liner in an alignment with the front and rear tie-down ring retaining plates. The tie-down ring is an accessory with a base member which has a plurality of holes for alignment with at least one of the bed liner holes and consists of a fold down ring with a fulcrum at the base member and the fold down ring has a through hole.
A disadvantage of the retainer apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 6,203,090 B1 and Thai Patent No. 10615 is that in case there are no holes in the truck bed, this apparatus can not be secured to the bed liner.
Further, the fastening assembly pursuant to the present invention has duly cross-licensed for the claim under the U.S. Pat. No. 6,203,090 B1 and Thai Patent No. 10615 with respect to the foldable tie-down ring.
The present invention relates to the fastening assembly for securing a plastic bed liner to a pickup truck bed without drilling. This invention has been designed to solve problems regarding a mechanism for securing a bed liner to a pickup truck bed as aforesaid and to add convenience or utility from the foldable tie-down rings.